It has long been observed that cats frequently exercise and sharpen their claws by scratching stationary objects especially articles of furniture, draperies and carpeting which may be damaged or destroyed by such activity. To deter this behavior, many cat owners have provided scratching posts as alternative scratching surfaces for their pets.
Wood has often been used in the construction of scratching posts, however, wood is subject to splintering or slivering which may be harmful to the cat. As an alternative to the use of wood, many scratching posts are now covered with carpeting material as shown by Salerno, U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,397; Bryson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,997,019; Goldson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,894,487 and Helmer, U.S. Pat. No. 3,085,551. The cat scratcher of Helmer is intended to be mounted on a door, while the other scratching posts are floor mounted.
While it is desirable to prevent the cat from destroying expensive upholstery or carpeting, pile covered scratching posts of the type identified above only serve to reinforce this destructive behavior.
Another scratching post assembly is disclosed by Mullin, U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,027 wherein the scratching post consists of a plurality of vertically stacked corrugated cardboard sheets. A major disadvantage of this device is that cardboard is easily shredded and mutilated by the cat's claws thereby necessitating frequent replacement thereof.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a scratching post assembly from materials other than those referred to above yet which would still be attractive to a cat. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide a scratching post assembly which is versatile in construction so as to be readily mounted upon a variety of supporting structures, for example, doors, walls and cages.